Combating coronavirus: Disinfect your mobile phones to curb Covid-19 infection

Dubai - Microbes can stay for hours and reproduce on mobile phones.

A top Dubai cop has urged people to disinfect their phones to avoid the risk of getting infected with coronavirus.
"There are hundreds and hundreds of microbes on your mobile phone. You could be carrying the enemy with you without knowing it," Major Dr Rashid Al Ghafri, director of Training and Development at the General Department of Forensic Sciences and Criminology at Dubai Police, told Khaleej Times.
Al Ghafri was part of a research collaboration between the Dubai Police and Bond And Murdoch University in Australia that found that microphones could be a pathway in transmitting microbes, including coronavirus.
"We took 24 mobile phones as samples and our research found infectious pathogens, such as bacteria and viruses like Covid-19, on them. And when you touch the phone and touch your face again with the same hands, you are at risk of getting infected."
"There are some studies that say virus cannot stay on the surface for too long. But our studies showed that microbes can stay for hours and reproduce on mobile phones," said Al Ghafri.
The research, conclusions of which are published in the Journal of Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease, showed that mobile phones generate heat while being used, and that heat stimulates the microbes to stay for longer and reproduce.
"Thus phones are likely to be the 'Trojan Horses' in spreading virus," the officer pointed out.
"Mobile phones can be called as our third arm. It has become an extension of our hands. We are addicted to them. We keep them in our pocket. We take them to the toilet. And when we talk on the mobile phone, we deposit droplets that contain virus."
"If we look at how often we use mobile phones, and how community members and health care workers carry mobile phones with them all the time, we have to suspect that mobile phones could be the main culprit for community spread of coronavirus."
Al Ghafri said if people wash their hands and then touch their mobile phones, they are contaminating their hands again.
"If you ask me, I would say people should disinfect their mobile phones as often as they would wash their hands. If you touch your phone and touch your nose or face again, that will lead to secondary contamination," averred Al Ghafri.
He also advised people not to touch or talk on other people's mobile phones to avoid the risk of getting infected.
anjana@khaleejtimes.com 

• Dubai